I was in the process of entering classmate names, and something caused the page to close. Now I can't get back to where I was at in adding names, and I couldn't seem to get the template to work in copying the name and e-mail information I already had on an Excell spreadsheet. What can I do now? I'm stumped....

Bill

Let me make sure I understand your question. There are two ways of course to get Classmate names into the system: 1) manually, and 2) through the Excel File import. It sounds like you are having trouble getting back into the manual Clasmate entry area, and it also sounds like you are having trouble uploading another Excel spreadsheet. So let me address both issues:

1) If you wish to get back to your manual Classmate entry area, when logged into your site click on Manage Classmates. Then click on the "Enter/Edit Classmates Manually" button. From here you can add additional Classmates.

2) Regarding your Excel file, once you have uploaded an Excel list of your Classmates, you cannot re-uploaded those same Classmates with another batch upload. Any NEW Classmates on your Excel file will in fact upload, but if any records already exist on your site they will not be overwritten by your new upload. We do this to prevent you from erasing data that your Classmates may already be putting into their Profiles. Once you have added a Classmate to your site, if you need to make any modifications to that Classmate's record, you must use the manual edit Classmate procedure described in #1.

Brad, I'd like to suggest a change to this limitation...

If the software developers could perhaps add an "if/then" statement (allowing only the empty data fields to be populated), then it might be possible to upload batch profile data into existing classmate profiles.

I realize it's probably not as simple as that, but here is my predicament: I received an Excel spreadsheet of my classmates' addresses & phone numbers **AFTER** I manually created over 400 classmate records.

Also, when manually editing a lot of profiles, it would be a real treat to be able to see an indicator (icon? or date/time) that a record was updated within the administrator's view of the classmates list (after selecting "ENTER/EDIT CLASSMATES" in the "Manage Classmates" page).

It's too late on my website, but other clients down the road might appreciate...

You all have a **GREAT** product, and an amazingly helpful team!
Thanks!
Terry

Thanks Terry.

1) My concern about the if/then idea is one of privacy. And trust me when I tell you this, take any privacy concerns you think may exist and multiply that by 10 or so, and now you're really dealing with what we see on our end. So -- Classmate joins your site and deliberately chooses to not include his or her address and/or phone number. The Classmate has already signed up, and now has an expectation to what information is, and what information isn't, included in their record. And now you come along and batch import the very phone number or address the Classmate had chosen to omit. In the best scenario the Classmate may be a little surprised when they find that information in there that they initially omitted, but in the worst scenario you have somebody angry on your hands. And even worse for us, we wind up with potentially hundreds of angry people on OUR hands. Thus for this reason alone I'd have second thoughts about allowing Admins to add what some people consider personal or private information to Classmate Profiles after the Classmate him or herself has already had a chance to choose whether or not to include this information. Not to mention it adds to the complexity of the import mechanism, which means more instructions and more for people to understand. That's my two cents on this, anyway.

Regarding your other idea of putting the last updated date on the admin's view of the Class List, I think it's a great idea. Added to the Task List. Thank you for that!

Wow, Brad, thanks! You made a VERY good argument against my suggestion. I perfectly understand -- and agree!

I will venture to modify my suggestion now: suppose the if/then statement looked first to see whether the classmate has not yet created a login ID and password... ? Would that work?

Thanks again!
Terry

Yes. Of course, this begs the question should we allow ANY data to be imported a second time if the Classmate has not signed up yet. And if so, should we also allow new data to overwrite existing data? I.E. Rather than doing any type of if statement for what's already filled in, should we just change out the whole record to be consistent with what's in the new upload if the Classmate has not yet signed up?

Brad, yes, I see where you're going with that... where do you draw the line? It needs more thought.

Meanwhile, my work-around is to delete all the manual records (that do not already have a login ID and password), then upload the spreadsheet. I'm doing it section-by-section -- about 20 at a time -- so that if I have to manually re-enter any records the job won't be too big -- also so that my classmates can continue to register themselves. It's faster than cutting/pasting all the address boxes for 350+ records!

Thanks for exploring the idea with me anyway.
Terry

For now that's a good solution. In fact in the interest of understandability/usability that may be the desired solution. If somebody wants to reimport something, they can certainly zap the accounts using the reset option first, thus allowing the import for that record to work again.

Brad Switzer said:
"Regarding your other idea of putting the last updated date on the admin's view of the Class List,..."

Wow! This was implemented! Yay, I love it! What a big help. Thanks so much!

Terry